Slackless type drawbar assemblies have been well known in the railroad industry for several years as a means to connect together the adjacently disposed ends of a pair of railway freight cars in a substantially semi-permanent fashion, prior to the development of the present invention.
In other words, these railway freight cars do not require frequent separation during service. Normally they will only be separated during a required repair and/or routine maintenance being performed on one or more of them.
These particular railway cars are normally of the type used in what is most commonly referred to, in the railroad industry, as dedicated service. Railway freight cars of such dedicated service type will at least include: those cars which are normally utilized to haul coal, coke, and/or various other types of raw minerals; automotive type transport carriers, cars which are utilized in the transporting of various types of building materials and tank cars which are used to transport various types of liquid products.
Examples of some other raw minerals transported in these dedicated service railway freight cars include: various ores, cement and stone. The various types of liquids transported by such dedicated service railway tank cars will at least include a number of different chemicals. Building materials transported in this manner include: lumber, dry wall, plywood, paneling, etc.
A typical slackless type drawbar assembly comprises the following elements: a female connection member, a male connection member retained in such female connection member, a drawbar connected to such male connection member and at least one wedge member.
The present invention is particularly directed to the carrier plate portion of the slackless drawbar assembly and to maintaining the distance of this carrier plate from the locking wedge member during installation of the slackless drawbar assembly into the end portion of a center sill.
The carrier plate performs the function of holding the male connection member and locking wedge member in place during service. The present invention enables positioning of the locking wedge member with respect to the carrier plate during installation and it enables tightening of this locking wedge member to the carrier plate.
Another significant drawback of the known prior art is that one could not attach the slackless drawbar assembly unit as a whole to the carrier plate prior to its installation into the end of the center sill. The present invention provides for a means to overcome these problems in the prior art type slackless drawbar assemblies.